*Price above based on 1-year term before application of coupon code/introductory discount. While you may pay less for the first year of hosting, unless otherwise indicated, the pricing displayed on this page is the 1-year term renewal rate. Star ratings based on a 0.5 minimum to 5 star maximum scale. Why you can trust this DreamHost review. >

The Bottom Line

RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS

Not the cheapest shared host around, DreamHost does offer superior technology at an affordable price.

Known amongst webmasters for their reliability and server speed, DreamHost provides new customers with a two-week free trial. Notably, they have the longest money-back guarantee of any web hosting company reviewed to date — 97 days!

While support services are provided via ticket-only, the excellent technical merits of their services as well as their ease of use warrant consideration. On balance, DreamHost has earned the NCM Online designation of RECOMMENDED WITH RESERVATIONS.

Rating

Review

Popular amongst internet professionals for their reliability, server speed, and numerous shared hosting features, DreamHost does not follow the crowd. They are a company that does things in their own way. With 1 million plus active hosting accounts as a testament to their success, they must be pleasing a lot of customers.

We don’t often come across web hosting companies that offer free trials, but DreamHost is an exception. Completing the sign up process entitles customers to try the service free for two weeks. If you are satisfied after the first 14 days, they bill your credit card. If you are unhappy, you can cancel at any time during the trial period without being charged a single cent. We were pleasantly surprised to receive an e-mail 3 days prior to the trial expiration reminding us that the free trial was coming to an end. We did not cancel.

DreamHost proprietary control panel. Click to enlarge.

Accounts are set up immediately and the “Welcome” e-mail includes all of the information you need to get started. We had our NCM test site free trial up and running in less than an hour after signing up.

At $9.95 per month before application of the NCMONLINE25OFF $25.00 off coupon code, DreamHost is a bit more costly than the average shared host. However, their plan provides a good deal more and it is backed by an unheard of 97-day money-back guarantee. Unlike other companies that offer a number of shared Linux plans, DreamHost features a single all-inclusive plan that provides a number of upgrade options. Unlimited features of the plan include:

DreamHost proprietary 1-click WordPress installer. Click to enlarge.

Unlimited disk space

Unlimited bandwidth

Unlimited MySQL databases

Unlimited domains

Unlimited e-mail addresses

Unlimited mailing lists

Unlimited auto-responders

Unlimited subdomains

Unlimited forwarded/mirrored domains

DreamHost utilizes a proprietary control panel (screenshot above right). Owing to the intuitive navigation menu, it is fairly easy to master within a few minutes, and should pose no problems for beginners. Unlike a number of other hosting companies with their own custom control panels, we did not encounter any issues with the DreamHost Dashboard while setting up our site.

DreamHost Uptime Test Results Chart. Click to enlarge.

DreamHost provides a proprietary 1-click script installer (screenshot above right) for CMS applications like WordPress, Joomla, Concrete5, Pligg, MODx Evolution, and others. It will also install Zen Cart, the popular ecommerce shopping cart, with a single click. We found their 1-click installer to be the simplest we have ever encountered and ideal for beginners.

All web hosting services reviewed by NCM Online are purchased and subjected to our 10-day test for uptime and speed. To date, DreamHost is one of the fastest shared hosting services we have tested, scoring a highly impressive average speed of only 1.119 seconds to load our test site from 13 locations worldwide, and only 0.8707 seconds from 7 U.S. locations. Tested for uptime every 15 minutes over 10 days, DreamHost produced a perfect 100% reliability score. See screenshots of Uptime and Speed Test Results Charts right.

Cons

F BBB rating

No phone or chat support

No PayPal billing option

Not the cheapest shared hosting

Conclusion

Providing a wide range of unlimited hosting features and the superior technical performance favored by internet professionals, DreamHost is also easy to use for beginners. While they are not the least expensive shared host in the industry, DreamHost packs a lot of value into their service for less than $10 per month.

DreamHost has earned 4 stars and is recommended with reservations by NCM Online.

Pricing and Features

Cheap website hosting company price comparisons based on 1-year term list price before coupon/promo codes or limited time/introductory offer discounts. These are the renewal rates for the second year of hosting. To ensure that you receive the most affordable DreamHost pricing possible, please visit our Web Hosting Coupon Codes page for current discounts and special offers before making any purchases.

Plan

Shared

Disk Storage

Unlimited

Monthly Bandwidth

Unlimited

Domains Hosted

Unlimited

Full Shell / SSH / FTP / SFTP Users

Unlimited

E-Mail Accounts (POP/IMAP/Webmail)

Unlimited

MySQL 5 Databases

Unlimited

Operating System

Debian Linux

Email

IMAP / POP / SMTP Access

Web-Based Email Access

Mail Filtering

Spam Filtering by SpamAssassin

Email Addresses

Unlimited

Announcement Lists

Unlimited

Discussion Lists

Unlimited

Vacation Auto-Responders

Domains

Free Domain Registration

Free Domain WHOIS Privacy

Domains Hosted

Unlimited

Subdomains Hosted

Unlimited

Domains Forwarded/Mirrored

Unlimited

Custom DNS

Programming

PHP5 Support

Perl Support

Python Support

Full Unix Shell

Crontab Access

Full CGI Access

Ruby On Rails

Canned CGI Scripts

Server Side Includes (SSI)

Subversion Repository (SVN)

Advanced Features

IPv6 Address

SSL Secure Server (req. Unique IP)

Enhanced Web Security

WebDAV

Daily Access Statistics

Access to raw log files

Passworded Directories

Anonymous FTP Server

Jabber TM Chat Server

Up to $100 Google AdWords credit

One-Click Automatic Software Installers:

Technical Support

24/7 Los Angeles-based Email Technical Support

100% uptime guarantee

97-day money-back guarantee

The Award-winning DreamHost Control Panel

The DreamHost Wiki

The DreamHost Forum

Account Upgrades

Additional Domain Registration

$9.95/year

Unique IP Address

$3.95/month

Premium Support

$9.95/month

SSL Secure Certificate (requires unique IP)

$15.00/year

VPS

$15.00/month

Price per Month*

$9.95

*Prices based on 1-year term before the application of coupon/promo codes and introductory/limited-time offer discounts. While you may pay less for the first year of hosting, the prices displayed on this page are the 1-year term renewal rates.

Company Information

DreamHost has been hosting their clients’ websites since 1997. That was back when four Computer Science undergraduates from Claremont, California established the firm with no capital save for a single Pentium 100 web server, which was fondly called Destro, and using a shared bandwidth from a T1 line that given by a friend for free. DreamHost remained frugal due to necessity; however, even with limited resources DreamHost did their best to offer great service at a reasonable cost.

The early days of the business forced the firm to be creative and employ innovative solutions to meet their customers’ needs. It’s a practice that’s remained as they have decided to build most of their own technology; the practice sets them apart from the competition. DreamHost’s technology is created by some of the industry’s brightest developers on stable systems; they’ve worked together to give a positive user experience. DreamHost have designed everything to be easy-to-use and with their clients in mind.

So far, they did the right thing. Over the past ten years or so, DreamHost has developed into more than 1500 servers, high-tech data centers, and a full-time staff of more than a hundred employees. The company now hosts more than a million domains. They’re focused on giving high quality customer experience supported by the industry’s best web hosting technology. It’s an eternal quest, but it’s a journey they’re happy to take.

DreamHost promises to always take a customer’s business seriously and constantly search for ways to expand their offerings, enhance reliability, and develop the overall service quality. After all, your ideas set you online, but the hosting companies such as DreamHost help you stay there.

When DreamHost found out that they produce more carbon dioxide than 500 average households, they knew they have to find ways of offsetting their emissions. By conducting some research DreamHost discovered that the most efficient approach starts with resource conservation: shutting off the lights, decreasing travel, printing both sides of the paper. Efforts were increased to find out how to do more with less. The next phase was to use clean and renewable energy. Since there’s no option to set solar panels up or obtain power from a green power utility, the company bought Renewable Energy Credits instead. Finally, to counterbalance those unavoidable emissions, they’ve also invested in “offsets” through the Emission Reduction Credits which ensures that their residual impact is removed.

The credits that the company uses for green energy consumption for neutralizing the remaining emissions meet the industry’s highest standards. They’ve also linked with the U.S. Green Chamber, joining their “100 Cities for Change” program. The program’s goal is to assist and support sustainable business practices that encourage energy efficiency, job creation, innovation, and a better economic future.

PLEASE NOTE: While we attempt to provide timely and accurate information, any and all pricing, features, discounts, coupon codes, promo codes, etc. included on this page are beyond the control of ncmonline.com and are subject to change without prior notice.